


Healing

by astrangerenters



Category: Final Fantasy IV
Genre: Final Fantasy Kiss Battle, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-08
Updated: 2013-02-08
Packaged: 2017-12-08 11:42:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/760939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/pseuds/astrangerenters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She has to be brave! For Rosa and Cecil. For Fabul. If she can cast fire, she can deal with a silly scrape, can't she?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Healing

She can keep up with them. She can! And she's so determined to prove it that when she stumbles and falls, scraping her knee on the pebbled path, Rydia gets right back up again. Tears burn in her eyes, and she tries to hurry her steps to match Cecil's. If they don't make it to Fabul in time...if she's too slow and they can't get there...

She can keep up with them. She can!

Until she falls again, and Rosa finds her. Rydia curls her legs up and looks desperately at a small patch of grass clinging to the mountainside, anywhere but at Rosa's face. "You must be brave," Rosa had said earlier, and with her encouragement, Rydia had found it in herself to call upon the flames, to melt the ice.

"I can get up," Rydia says, trying not to cry. She has to be brave! For Rosa and Cecil. For Fabul. If she can cast fire, she can deal with a silly scrape, can't she? She uses her rod to try and get back on her feet. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

But Rosa's hand finds her shoulder, keeping her down. "Let me help."

Shame courses through Rydia as soon as Rosa sets down her bow and kneels down before her, her soft, gentle hand resting on her wounded leg. "Don't waste your energy," Rydia pleads with her. Rosa's only just recovered, and their journey has been difficult already. Rosa needs to conserve her strength.

But Rosa just smiles kindly as she whispers her incantation, and Rydia feels a slight pressure, a tingling sensation running down her leg as her wound stitches itself back together. It's not like drinking a potion, not like anything she's ever felt. It's not the rumbling power she feels when she calls. It's not the same punishing heat as her fire spell. Instead it's a soothing warmth, as warm as Rosa's smile and as warm as her mother's embrace had been on a cold night in Mist. A pang of longing swells up within her and makes the tears come all the more, even though Rosa's magic has left her skin clean and healed.

Rosa removes her hand. "Now there's a second stage to this spell, but you must promise not to tell."

"Not even Cecil?"

Rosa shakes her head. "Especially not Cecil."

The sad thoughts of her mother, of Mist, fall away at the idea of learning something special, something new from Rosa. And only Rydia can know! She has to pay attention. She has to be brave.

"Tell me," Rydia says, wiping her eyes.

Rosa merely leans forward, pressing her lips to Rydia's knee. Rydia's own mother had done this back home whenever Rydia had fallen down. It's not really a spell, is it? It's not really magic.

And yet Rydia feels tons better, enough to spring to her feet without Rosa's assistance. "Healing magic is never a waste if someone needs help," Rosa tells her. "Will you remember that?"

She nods, grasping her rod tightly. "I will," she promises as they start to walk again.

She can't walk as fast as Cecil, but it doesn't matter. Rydia keeps pace with Rosa instead. She can keep up with her. She can.


End file.
